


Stupid Cupid

by Luckiest_porg_in_the_galaxy



Series: Beautiful trauma [1]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Damerux, F/M, Fluff, Gingerpilot, Hoe - Freeform, M/M, Mental Illness, Mention of Child Abuse, Minor Character Death, PTSD, Reylo - Freeform, This is a prequel/companion fic to the ginger pilot fic in the future, With happy ending, eventually, one of the ships is fluffy af, the other just straight up angst, with hurt/comfort
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-31
Updated: 2018-01-31
Packaged: 2019-03-11 21:45:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,940
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13533174
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Luckiest_porg_in_the_galaxy/pseuds/Luckiest_porg_in_the_galaxy
Summary: Poe had been in love with Armitage Hux since he understood what love was.The only problem was his adoptive brother, who happened to be his crush's best friend, did everything he could to make sure Poe couldn't get close to Hux.But Poe also had a loyal soldier on his side.He should  have felt guilty about making his friend seduce his brother away for the day to give him time to confess.He really should.* A prequel to the upcoming Gingerpilot fic "Beautiful Trauma"*





	Stupid Cupid

**Author's Note:**

> Please read the tag before reading.

“Please, Rey.”

“No.”

“Pretty please? With cherry on top?”

“I said no! Are you crazy?”

Rey yelled at her best friend, didn’t care if anyone in the university cafeteria heard her. Poe didn’t even flinch. He just smiled at her sheepishly with his signature puppy eyes, but Rey refused to go down that rabbit hole.

“If you like Hux, just ask him out. Why do you have to drag me into this?”

“Because my beloved adoptive brother is hell bend on destroying my life and wouldn’t let me date his best friend even if I’m the only guy left in the Galaxy!” 

Poe groaned. He was adopted by Ben Solo’s parents after he lost his in a plan crash when he was ten. Poe was the golden boy, straight As student with great athletic instinct. He was a people person. He was elected as the school president and the captain of her high school football team.

Ben Solo, on the other hand, was not as friendly and out-going as his adopted brother. While he also got straight As his entire life and was in medical school and shared an apartment with his childhood best friend, Hux, who was in law school at the moment, he always kept to himself and rarely spoke to anyone. Rey was friends with Poe for most of her life and she still couldn’t get more than ‘Hello’ and ‘Sorry’ from him.

Which was why what Poe was asking her to do didn’t make sense at all.

“Then why do I have to be the one who ask him out?!”

“Because you are the only one who stands a chance. He has been in love with you for, like, years now.”

Poe still had no idea how Rey didn’t see the way Ben looked at her every time she went to his house to play with Poe. He was positive most of the reasons Ben hated him so much were because of his friendship with Rey.

“What? Him? With me?”

Rey was confused. Why would a tall, dark, and handsome rich guy who was ten years older than her and was in the same social group as all those hot model and celebrities, not to mention all the female doctors he met in medical school, be interested in someone like her?

“Rey, don’t you think it’s weird that he never brought a girl home even once?” Poe asked. She paused to think, then shook her head.

“Honestly? I always thought he was dating Hux or in some kind of complicated relationship with him.”

“Oh, trust me. They would kill each other a long time ago if that was the case.” Poe gave her another pleading  look. “Please, Rey. You know I have been in love with Armitage for as long as Ben has been in love with you, maybe even longer. He is moving to New York next year. It’s now or never.”

“Ugh, fine! But if he says he is not interested, I will help him do everything to make sure you will never get Hux.”

Rey rolled eyes, tried to hide her smile when Poe gave her a huge bear hug.

She had her own secret though.

The secret that she kept inside for years after she met Ben Solo, now going by Kylo Ren to avoid being spoiled by all the people who knew his famous uncle who owned the medical school he was studying in, and his even more famous mother who was a senator running for office the next election year.

She had been having a crush on him ever since she was a little girl.

* * *

 

“Ben. Can I talk to you for a second?”

The man slid from under his father’s racing car after he heard Rey entered the garage and sat up straight. He was wearing nothing but a pair of jeans that compliment his figure the way only he could pull off. His biceps and triceps alone could give a girl nosebleed. Rey was head-over-heels for Ben for the most parts of her life. She always used the ‘Little Brother’s friend’ card to get close to the man since she was young. While he wasn’t a warm and fuzzy big brother to Poe, Ben had always been kind to Rey, to the point where she felt like a little princess whenever she was around him when in reality, she was just an orphan kid no one wanted.

“Umm, hi, Rey.”

He said shyly, fumbling for a shirt to put on. For someone with hot body and killer abs, Ben Solo was really shy and self-conscious about taking off his clothes, which Rey found really adorable.

“I have a job interview tomorrow and I don’t have anything to wear. I need a lift to the mall. Can you drive me there?”

Rey had her driver’s license, but she didn’t own a car, so her transportations consisted of a cab and Poe picking her up.

“Where’s Poe?” Ben frowned. Damn, even his frown was cuter than Rey remembered.

“He’s busy.” Rey lied. “But if you don’t want to. It’s fine. I’m just going to hail a cab…”

“No, I mean yes! I- I want to-”

Ben stuttered, the way he got anxious when he tried to say something was also what Rey found really adorable, but she just hid her smile inside as usual and nodded.

“Cool. Meet me here in an hour?”

* * *

 

“You didn’t tell me I needed to stay.” 

Ben’s tone wasn’t accusing. Just simply stating the fact. 

“Didn’t I? My bad.” Rey knew she didn’t sound apologetic at all. Ben didn’t complain though. He never did. “But you are free until dinner, right? We could hang out, you know, like old times.”

There was a time in their life when Ben let Rey and his little brother tagged along everywhere he and Hux went, but after they hit puberty, Ben and Hux just kept to themselves and didn’t really talk to them anymore. 

“I have to pick Hux up for dinner at my parents’ house.” He said. Rey always wondered why Ben never used Hux’s given name, considered how long they had known each other.

“It’s like five hours from now. Stay with me and we can pick him up together.” Rey insisted, which was something she normally didn’t do. Ben hesitated but finally gave in. Rey dragged him around trying on new clothes and shoes just to keep Ben with her as long as possible. She pretended she needed his comment of every dress she tried on. Most of the time the man just sat there outside the dressing room, staring at her with wide eyes and mouth agape. She finally gave up on trying to make him voice his opinions, instead just let him nodded or shook his head in respond, which Ben just nodded repeatedly Rey feared for his neck bone.

Poe still didn’t call.

“Want to grab an ice cream? My treat.” 

Rey didn’t let him responded, just dragged the huge guy into the nearest ice cream shop. Ben looked misplaced in the colorful store filled with teenage couples and children with their family. Rey found a table for two and had Ben sit down then grabbed her purse.

“Wait here. I’ll go get an ice cream.”

He just nodded. Rey silently sighed and took a quick peek at her cell phone when she was in the line to order. Still nothing from Poe, and she had been dragging Ben around the whole mall she wasn’t she how many more excuses she could come up with to stop Ben from going to Hux’s.

 “Here you go. A chocolate ice cream with banana and whip cream, right?” Rey put an ice-cream bowl down in front of him. “I always like eating ice cream with you. I don’t have to choose between Chocolate and Strawberry.”

She said and dug in. Ben just stared at her, and lifted up his spoon slowly. 

* * *

 

They left the mall eventually, still no call from Poe. Rey wasn’t sure if Hux got so offended he actually knocked Poe out or he accepted Poe’s feelings and they were too busy doing unspeakable things to call Rey.

Either way, Rey decided she needed a new best friend.

One without a hot big brother to distract her thoughts.

Finally, Poe called. Rey was so excited she didn’t notice her speaker was connected to Ben’s stereo. Rey used to connect her phone with his car’s speaker when Ben pick her and Poe up in high school. She didn’t think the car would still connect to her phone automatically via bluetooth. That was why she startled when she heard Poe’s shaking voice from the car’s speaker.

“Armitage turned me down. Sorry for wasting your time, Rey.”

Ben almost hit the break in the middle of the road. He didn’t look angry at the news. He looked like he was panicking.

 “YOU DID WHAT?!”

“I’ll call you back.” Rey immediately hung up in fear of her friend getting yelled at by his brother after he was turned down by the love his life.

Ben didn’t say anything to her though. He pulled out his phone and sped up his car.

“Where are you?” She heard him asked. “Stay there. I’m coming.”

Ben sounded like he was having a panic attack. Rey was confused, but too scared to ask and Ben sped up until he was flirting with a speed limit. Soon, they were pulling over in front of Hux’s house which he lived alone after his father left when Hux turned eighteen. Rey didn’t remember where he went, nor she dared to ask. His father’s name was a forbidden subject for Hux.

The man was sitting in front of his house,  knees drew close to his chest, face buried in his hands. His shoulders were shaking indicated that Hux had been crying for quite some time, and it made Rey even more panic. She had never seen him cry. Hux was calm and collected. His every move was calculated beforehand, unlike Ben, who let emotions ruled him more than he should sometimes.

But at the moment, Ben was the calm and collected one. He pulled Hux into a tight embrace as the red haired man sobbed into his shoulders.

“…Poe, he- he-”

 “I know, buddy, I know.” Rey had never seen Ben like this. He comforted his friend with his deep, soothing voice and swayed the lean figure in his arms gently. “Did you take your pills? Did you do your routine?”

Hux entire body was still shaking but he nodded. Rey still didn’t know what was going on, but she thought she might have a clue.

“Okay then. I got everything in my trunk. Let’s go.”

Ben opened the backdoor and helped his best friend get in, not speaking to Rey or acknowledging her existence. Rey climbed into the front seat as Ben got back behind the wheel and drove off. The sobbing figure in the back seat quiet down eventually as they reached a psychiatrict hospital a town away from their home town.

Everything happened so fast Rey wasn’t sure if it was a dream. A minute ago Hux was in the back seat of Ben’s car and now he was checking himself in a mental hospital, and from all the papers and stuffs Ben prepared in the trunk of his car, Rey doubted it was the first time they did this. 

“See you in a few days.” Ben tried to smile at his friend but failed miserably. Hux bit his lower lip, but before he said anything, Ben repeated. “I will see you. I will pick you up myself. Don’t you dare take a cab home without me. Do you hear me?”

“Yes, Supreme Leader.” Hux replied sarcastically. The nickname came from Ben’s character in a game they used to play, and Ben nodded, watching his friend being escorted inside the hospital by a group of nurses until he couldn’t see Hux anymore.

“Is- Is he going to be alright?” Rey asked nervously.

“He will be.” Ben said absently. “No matter how hard he hit the ground, he always bounces back.”

 They were in the car when Rey finally gathered enough courage to ask about Hux’s condition.

“Was that because of Poe?”

“Sort of.” He sighed. “I need you to promise me you will never tell him what I’m about  to tell you. Hux gave me permission to tell you and you only.”

“I promise.” Rey knew this wasn’t her secret to tell.

“When he was born. His father used to beat him and his mother up daily. Brendol Hux was a good liar. For years no one ever noticed how badly his son’s ‘Biking injuries’ were.” Ben expressed his disdain at the older Hux. “Hux never told me anything. He would come up with all sort of excuses to keep me away from his house.”

“….” 

Rey just listened in silence. She always thought there was something odd about the man, and the truth was just…sad.

“My mother found out eventually. We tried to help anyway we could, but General Hux was so powerful for a local politician like mom could go up against. That was how we found out he was actually married to another woman, and Hux’s mother was his mistress. All of this happened couple of years before Poe moved in, so he didn’t know.”

That explained why Rey, who was adopted by the Kenobi family a year after didn’t know about this.

“We thought we had him, that if he was going to be exposed he would give up his son and his mistress, but it got worse.” Ben’s fingers dug into the stirring wheel so hard his knuckles became white. “Hux’s father killed his mother in front of him.”

Rey gasped out loud. She didn’t know that was what happened.

“My mother took him in for a while. She helped with the legal papers after his father was sentence to life without parole. Ben continued. “That was why Hux got that house. He hated it, but it was the only place he had memories with his mother.”

“That’s…horrible.” Rey felt tears welling in her eyes. She couldn’t believe Hux had to go through all of that in such young age.

“That was enough to fuck a full grown man up. Hux was a mess.” Ben shook his head. “He still believe he is.”

“But…What does that have anything to with Poe?”

“Because Hux firmly believes he is an emotional train wreck, and he refuses to drag anyone down with him.” 

His answer made Rey paused.

“Wait, Hux knew? All these years?”

“He did, and he was scared shitless when he realized he liked Poe back.” Ben’s eyes soften as he remembered his friend confessed his feeling about Ben's adopted brother. “He asked me to scare Poe away, but no matter how hard I tried, that boy just didn’t know how to give up.”

So that was why they stop hanging out with her and Poe.

“But…this is good for him! Hux can finally find someone who loves him. Poe would never hurt him. He has been in love with Hux ever since he knew what love was!” Rey argued.

“But at what cost?” Ben asked her bitterly. “Hux wasn’t scare of getting hurt. He was terrified of being like his father.”

“That’s ridiculous.” Rey said in disbelieve.

“You know people who were abused in their childhood have higher risk to be an abuser, right?” Ben said. “ I tried to prove him wrong, but Hux was terrified of that statistic. Shutting Poe out was the best way to protect him.”

“Wait, are you saying you try to keep Poe away from Hux to protect him?” Rey wasn’t sure how much more she could take.

“Of course, he is my little brother. That’s what brothers do.” Ben said as if it was what she was supposed to know.

“I don’t believe this. Poe thought you hated him!” Rey slumped back against her seat. “He thought you saw him as an outsider.”

“What? Why would he think that?” Ben looked confused. “He is my family. How can I hate my own family?”

Now she wished she could take back the promise that she wouldn’t tell about any of this.

“Ben, please. At least talk to Hux again. You know this might help Hux’s condition. Please.”

“….Fine.”

Ben sighed as he pulled into his house’s garage. Rey smiled brightly at him, she knew Ben couldn’t resist her puppy eyes.

“Hey, aside from all these. Today is kind of fun, do you want to do it again sometimes?” She held her breath, hoping Ben would say yes or at least let her down gently, but he just looked confused.

“Didn’t you just do it to get me away from Hux?”

“What? No! I mean, it was why I had enough courage to ask you, but I really like spending time with you.” Rey explained shyly. “I have always been.”

“I- I like spending time with you too.” Damn, Ben was cute when he stuttered. “Maybe we could get an ice cream again?”

“I’m looking forward to it.” Rey smiled. Ben got out of his car to open the door on her side, he held out his hand nervously, Rey took it, and was surprised by how right it felt when they fingers entwined.

Her second date was set in stone, but for now, Rey needed to figure out a way to tell her friend that his love was not unrequited without breaking a promise she made with his brother.


End file.
